Bandits have struck three San Antonio-area GameStops this week, two of the incidents involving armed confrontations and the latest ending with employees duct-taped on the floor as the thieves raided the till.

Police aren't saying how much money the suspects got in this instance, which happened Wednesday at 9:30 p.m. But the spread of circumstances suggest these aren't related. Suspects in the other two incidents took games. Boy are they gonna be in for a shock when they see how much they get for them at trade-in, even with the PowerUp Rewards card.

Lest you think this is another caution to avoid GameStops at closing time, the other holdup happened in the afternoon and the first incident was an early morning burglary when no one was around.

This has been a robust year for crime at GameStops; I'm sure someone will point to the worsening economy. I think the games chain makes an attractive target because, unlike knocking over a liquor store, the goods themselves are semi-liquid, even if there's not as much money in the register. And while the clerks are likely a pretty good shot in Call of Duty, they're unlikely to have a .44 or baseball bat under the counter.